Yesterday (12), a comet which had not visited us for 50,000 years reached its closest point to the Sun, 166 million kilometers away. Following its journey through the universe, it is heading towards Earth, passing “only” 42 million kilometers from our planet on February 2nd.
Chamado C/2022 E3 (ZTF), the comet is very bright and greenish, after the gases in its core have been heated by the Sun, forming the beautiful tail. It can already be seen with the aid of telescopes and may even be observed with the naked eye from some parts of the planet in the coming weeks.
Check out some of the best images ever captured:
Payson, Arizona (USA)
Image: Chris Schur
Yellow Springs, Ohio (EUA)
Image: John Chumack/GalacticImages.com
Weissenkirchen, Austria
Image: Michael Jäger
London England
Image: Darshna Ladva
Why is it green?
In the images, it draws attention to its green glow and long, bluish tail.
A comet only looks like this when it approaches the Sun (far from it, it’s just a “dirty” ice ball, with pieces of rocks). Over here, the ice in its core passes directly from the solid to the gaseous state, releasing gases and dust, which create a cloud around it — called a cloud. coma or ‘hair’.
In this one, due to its composition, it is very green. The unusual color is possibly due to the presence of diatomic carbon.
The closer to the Sun, these particles are spread over thousands of kilometers, “blown” by the solar wind. There the tail forms – which disappears when the comet moves away from our star. That of C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is bluish and has a triple appearance.
But these details are only seen with the aid of professional telescopes and cameras (astrophotographs). Probably, to the naked eye, it will look like a blurry star, a speck in the sky.
How to see?
Unfortunately for Brazilians, the northern hemisphere is privileged in this observation, due to the position of the comet in the sky. At perigee (maximum approximation to Earth, at 2/2), it will appear close to the constellation Giraffe, which is not visible here.
But, as the days go by, it (less and less bright, moving away) can be seen to the north, near the horizon, in the region of the constellation of the Charioteer (Auriga), in a small window of time between sunset and at midnight.
Anyone who wants to check where he is and his movement over time can use an astronomy application such as Skywalk, Starchart, Sky Safari or Stellarium. To try to see it, we recommend using binoculars.
live streams
Either way, technology will allow us to see C/2022 E3 (ZTF), from anywhere, through lives from some observatories around the world — such as The Virtual Telescope Project and Real Pax.
The errant object was discovered in March 2022 by a telescope at the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF — hence its name) in California, United States. Initially, it was believed to be a asteroid. But the increase in brightness as it passed Jupiter’s orbit revealed that C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was cometary in origin.
It is a small rocky and icy body, only 1 km in diameter, coming from the depths of the Solar System. Him last passed close to Earth 50,000 years ago, at the end of the Ice Age; the witnesses were our ancestors neanderthals and the first Homo sapiens.
know more about comets, meteors and asteroids.
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